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BFT 110 Discussion


jeffcrom

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Okay, I think that this blindfold test is like a woman, beautiful in an interesting way, who walks into a party and immediately attracts lots of attention. Then everyone realizes how annoying she is and avoids her for the rest of the evening.

"Doing a blindfold test is like making love to beautiful woman" (Swiss Tony)

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Okay, I think that this blindfold test is like a woman, beautiful in an interesting way, who walks into a party and immediately attracts lots of attention. Then everyone realizes how annoying she is and avoids her for the rest of the evening.

No, I just think it is a difficult test. Maybe you could provide some hints?

Actually, nine of the fourteen tracks have identified to one extent or another. Here are some hints on the others:

1. Identified

2. This is a two-tune excerpt from a long medley this pianist recorded, presumably for one side of a 10-inch LP, but which was not issued at the time. The artist was an early supporter of Monk, and this is a relatively early recording of one of Monk's pieces by someone other than Monk himself. It was probably taught to the pianist in question by Monk himself, or played from a manuscript given by Monk.

The second tune is also composed by a master jazz composer, and our pianist was also an early proponent of this guy's music. Again, the composer probably taught the pianist the tune personally.

3. Identified

4. Okay - an all-star gathering of New Orleans musicians (although if you're not into New Orleans music, some of the names may not mean anything to you), from an obscure LP that has never been reissued. It's from the LP era, but long enough ago that none of these musicians are still living, although I heard a couple of them in person. The guitarist, who plays only rhythm here, appears elsewhere in the BFT. The clarinetist is the focus, as several of you honed in on. He is less famous than his brother, who also played clarinet. The famous brother left New Orleans with a band that became popular throughout the world; our clarinetist here stayed in New Orleans, and his name is pretty much only known to trad music "insiders." His playing is far richer and deeper than his brother's, though.

One more hint - the excellent bassist played in the band of the great, unrecorded cornetist Buddy Petit when his was young.

5. Most of y'all don't care, but this is one of my favorite contemporary klezmer clarinetists. It's his band, and it's not Ben Goldberg or Matt Darriau. Definitely not Don Byron....

6. Identified by practically everyone.

7. Identified

8. It's the alto player's band. He made several records for this company in the 1970s, and this one is by far the best. He's been mentioned several times in various threads here over the last month or so.

9. Identified

10. Indentified, much to my surprise. This was supposed to be the "impossible" track of this BFT, so props to The Magnificent Goldberg.

11. My homeboy, playing with an Old World rhythm section, including Han Bennink, who has been identified.

12. Identified

13. Identified, but that wasn't the point. Y'all listen to that short trumpet solo.

14. Identified and reviled.

And remember that identifying the tracks is only part of the game, as far as I'm concerned. I've really enjoyed the discussion that some of these tracks inspired.

Edited by jeffcrom
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Your hint on #2 is conspicuously gender-neutral (not sure if that's thread-wide, though), so, Mary Lou?

I would be a bit surprised if so, but...surprises happen, eh?

And fwiw - as predicted, Fela has taken over the house, but Danny Barker has got the car, so...community property.

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Your hint on #2 is conspicuously gender-neutral (not sure if that's thread-wide, though), so, Mary Lou?

I would be a bit surprised if so, but...surprises happen, eh?

And fwiw - as predicted, Fela has taken over the house, but Danny Barker has got the car, so...community property.

Yes - the avoidance of the personal pronoun was a hint in itself. It's a striking, fairly Monk-like (arguably) rendition of "Monk's Mood" by Mary Lou Williams, followed by... what?

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Ah, "The Bebop Waltz".



A Herbie Nichols piece? Which one, i couldn't tell you right off hand.

Damn, you're good!

What the ears don't remember, logic fills in. And vice-versa. On really good days, both, but some days are better than others.

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4. Okay - an all-star gathering of New Orleans musicians (although if you're not into New Orleans music, some of the names may not mean anything to you), from an obscure LP that has never been reissued. It's from the LP era, but long enough ago that none of these musicians are still living, although I heard a couple of them in person. The guitarist, who plays only rhythm here, appears elsewhere in the BFT. The clarinetist is the focus, as several of you honed in on. He is less famous than his brother, who also played clarinet. The famous brother left New Orleans with a band that became popular throughout the world; our clarinetist here stayed in New Orleans, and his name is pretty much only known to trad music "insiders." His playing is far richer and deeper than his brother's, though.

One more hint - the excellent bassist played in the band of the great, unrecorded cornetist Buddy Petit when his was young.

Oh. Ah. O.K. No way I would have guessed this. I have simply heard too little of the clarinettist's playing--except for some tracks from 1925, I have nothing of his. (But will now seek out more!)

Shall I try to keep it secretive? AA, HS, CZ, 1967--yes? And the rest are heavy-weights, too. What a line-up!

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Ah, "The Bebop Waltz".

Is this it? http://www.allmusic.com/album/circle-recordings-mw0000477896

Hope so, I jsut one-clicked it...

That's it - the wonderful Mary Lou playing Monk and Herbie from 1951.

4. Okay - an all-star gathering of New Orleans musicians (although if you're not into New Orleans music, some of the names may not mean anything to you), from an obscure LP that has never been reissued. It's from the LP era, but long enough ago that none of these musicians are still living, although I heard a couple of them in person. The guitarist, who plays only rhythm here, appears elsewhere in the BFT. The clarinetist is the focus, as several of you honed in on. He is less famous than his brother, who also played clarinet. The famous brother left New Orleans with a band that became popular throughout the world; our clarinetist here stayed in New Orleans, and his name is pretty much only known to trad music "insiders." His playing is far richer and deeper than his brother's, though.

One more hint - the excellent bassist played in the band of the great, unrecorded cornetist Buddy Petit when his was young.

Oh. Ah. O.K. No way I would have guessed this. I have simply heard too little of the clarinettist's playing--except for some tracks from 1925, I have nothing of his. (But will now seek out more!)

Shall I try to keep it secretive? AA, HS, CZ, 1967--yes? And the rest are heavy-weights, too. What a line-up!

Dude, spill it! This was my other "impossible" track, and you are the only person here I thought would have a chance of recognizing any of these guys. Tell all, and I'll tell about hearing CZ in person, a couple of months before he died.

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Alex gets the points, for sure. He actually had a clue! I just had his clues, and about a half-bit's worth of a semi-idea about where to start, and all the internet.

That last one is a really useful toy if you know how to play it...

Hell, I'll give alex 50% of my points and you the other half because you guys actually have gone here/there, to this music that I can feel and get in the macro, but you guys, y'all done been to the house, got some milk out the icebox, ate a sandwich, and used the bathroom to clean up afterwards, leaving no unpleasant vestige of your visit therein, in the air or on the towels.

And then went out and talked on the porch for a while!

Much props from me to those who can do that. Props, respect, and love in the cosmic sense.

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Dude, spill it! This was my other "impossible" track, and you are the only person here I thought would have a chance of recognizing any of these guys. Tell all, and I'll tell about hearing CZ in person, a couple of months before he died.

JSngry's link has the line-up, but in case that page disappears, I'll stick it here for archival purposes: Alvin Alcorn (tp), Jack Delaney (tb), Harry Shields (cl), Armand Hug (p), Danny Barker (g (or bj?)), Chester Zardis (b), Louis Barbarin (d)

And I badly want to hear about your hearing Chester in person! There's that great footage of his talking on a street corner to some kids, playing his bass. I think it's in some Rhapsody Films documentary, but I don't remember which one.

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Dude, spill it! This was my other "impossible" track, and you are the only person here I thought would have a chance of recognizing any of these guys. Tell all, and I'll tell about hearing CZ in person, a couple of months before he died.

JSngry's link has the line-up, but in case that page disappears, I'll stick it here for archival purposes: Alvin Alcorn (tp), Jack Delaney (tb), Harry Shields (cl), Armand Hug (p), Danny Barker (g (or bj?)), Chester Zardis (b), Louis Barbarin (d)

And I badly want to hear about your hearing Chester in person! There's that great footage of his talking on a street corner to some kids, playing his bass. I think it's in some Rhapsody Films documentary, but I don't remember which one.

Okay - I'm that weirdo who loves traditional New Orleans jazz, bebop, soul jazz organ, and avant-garde jazz equally. (Sorry about those last three, Alex!) After years of dreaming about being in New Orleans, I finally visited for the first time in 1990, when I was in my early thirties. It was "amazing and overwhelming," as I wrote in my journal at the time. I thought I knew a lot about New Orleans jazz at that point, but I quickly found out that I didn't. I knew about the "classic" New Orleans recordings from the 1920s - King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Johnny Dodds, Armstrong's Hot Five, etc. I found that I knew next to nothing about later New Orleans jazz, but my education started with that trip.

Of course, one of my destinations was Preservation Hall, and at the time, there were still a few first-generation (depending on how you define that) and lots of second-generation jazzmen playing there regularly. The night I went to the Hall for the first time, the band was Kid Sheik's. I had at least heard of Kid Sheik, but didn't know what to expect. The band was wonderful, though - Sheik could still play very well, even though he was near the end of his playing career. I'll always be sad that I missed Louis Nelson, who was his regular trombonist until just before I heard the band. Nelson was in a car accident a couple of weeks before my visit; he was still in the hospital and sadly died there a few weeks later. His replacement was either Paul Crawford or Tom Ebbert, but I'm not sure which. The wonderful Jeanette Kimball was on piano - she had recorded with Oscar Celestin's band back in the 1920s. In my ignorance I first wondered if she might be Sweet Emma - Emma Barrett had been dead for several years by that time, but I wasn't sure. The excellent Manny Crusto was the clarinetist - I got to hear him a couple of more times - and young Don Vappie was on banjo. I'm not sure who the drummer was, but it might have been Frank Oxley.

But the musician who made the biggest impression on my was the very short man who played the bass while facing the back wall, away from the audience. I guess his idea was that the sound would bounce from the F-holes of the bass off the wall for more resonance. But in any case, Chester Zardis knocked me out with his swing, perfect intonation, and great big sound. And he was one month away from his 90th birthday at the time. I had never heard of Chester Zardis before that trip, but you can bet that I found out as much as possible about him when I got home. I had bought an anthology of New Orleans jazz on the 504 label at Record Ron's in New Orleans before the Preservation Hall visit, and was tickled to find that Zardis played on several of the tracks. He died four months after I heard him.

Here's Chester in 1920, at age 20 or so, with Buddy Petit's band. Edmond Hall is the clarinetist.

BuddyPetti%27sJazzBand1920-JazzInformati

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Okay, here are my observations...not much in the way of guesses, but there was a lot here to enjoy and I am looking forward to finding out who some of these are. Thanks for your efforts Jeff! This was a lot of fun. :tup

1 - There's something very familiar sounding about this tune but I can't place it. I do like the head, some interesting lines. Performance-wise it's a mixed bag for me. I do like the trumpet player and the piano player. The trumpet player has kind of a buttery, syrupy tone that I like, and I like the phrasing and choice of notes on the solo too. The guitar I don't particularly care for...sound-wise it is akin to an electric banjo and I just don't find the solo very interesting. The drummer seems a little unstable on the 4's.
2 - Okay...this is a Monk tune but I can't think of which one it is...gonna drive me crazy. This is a thoughtful and emotional reading of this tune...very well done.
3 - I am far from an expert on this kind of music, but I do feel there's a certain excitement and newness here that not many people have captured in recent years. I really like this. Some great playing and interaction...these guys are really saying something.
4 - That is one hot clarinet player. He is the highlight of this track for me...what a solo!
5 - I wish I could like this, I really do...but the klezmer thing is just not my bag. But I respect this more than I like it.
6 - Nice! Some serious grooviness. Hmmm...the horns and the guitar actually aren't blowing me away--the organist is the whole show here. Holy crap...he really knows how to build a solo. And big props to the drums & percussion for keeping the groove and the energy up...this is seriously intense. Ah..."I Get A Kick Out of You"...interesting. To be honest, LOVE the organ solo, but everything on the front and back end I could do without. Really interested in finding out who the organ player is.
7 - This is nice and pleasant but not something I would probably listen to more than once. But it's obviously done very well, just not really my thing.
8 - I like the feel on this a lot...and by that I mean both the rhythmic feel and the mood of the piece. I'm really enjoying the sax player...even more so when he/she returns for another go around at the end. Some really nice, energetic moments there. Everyone sounds great here...perfect solos from the piano and trumpet...and there is a real cohesiveness to the whole group. There's something about the whole performance and the piece that sounds Mal Waldron-esque to my ears, but I don't think the piano player is Waldron. Overall I am dying to know who this is...and then I'll slap my forehead as I'm sure these are folks I do or should know. Great stuff!
9 - "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"...this is beautiful, but it ultimately doesn't quite hit that 'sweet spot' for me. I hate to say anything bad about it because it's a flawless performance in many ways, but I am missing an emotional depth somehow. The playing is spot-on, it just doesn't move me like I want it to. I have no doubt I'll regret having said that once I find out who it is. :)
10 - Okay...this has everything I was missing in the last one. Fantastic. I am really loving the alto player...such an expressive tone. And the guitarist is the perfect complement, really listening, responding, and supportive. Superb.
11 - The Ornette influence is clear off the bat, but it quickly takes an interesting detour. Holy cow. This has got to be an ESP recording, no? Maybe the sound quality is throwing me off...I'm having a hard time telling whether this was recorded in the 60s or much more recently. Either way, I really dig it. The bass player certainly sounds like he could be Alan Silva. The rhythmic feel of this tune combined with the disjointed phrasing of the alto player is really compelling to me. And I'm a big fan of the bass playing too. Dying to know who this is!!
12 - This is just a barrel of fun with a killin groove underneath. Love it! This thing grooves so hard you could drive a truck through it. I have no idea what that means, but someone I know used to say that.
13 - Well, obviously it's Louis Armstrong..."Dream a Little Dream of Me." Not sure what can be said about Louis that hasn't already been said...this is perfect, classic.
14 - Hoo boy. Wow... yeah, I cannot do this one, sorry! Wait a minute...this is a joke, right? Okay...haha. If it is, it's a good one. I have done some gigs like this and they were somewhere between funny and excruciating!
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Okay, here are my observations...not much in the way of guesses, but there was a lot here to enjoy and I am looking forward to finding out who some of these are. Thanks for your efforts Jeff! This was a lot of fun. :tup

Glad you enjoyed - I enjoyed reading your responses. As you probably know by now, the majority of the tracks have been identified.

1 - There's something very familiar sounding about this tune but I can't place it. I do like the head, some interesting lines. Performance-wise it's a mixed bag for me. I do like the trumpet player and the piano player. The trumpet player has kind of a buttery, syrupy tone that I like, and I like the phrasing and choice of notes on the solo too. The guitar I don't particularly care for...sound-wise it is akin to an electric banjo and I just don't find the solo very interesting. The drummer seems a little unstable on the 4's.
Identified as Ira Sullivan playing Gillespie's "That's Earl, Brother," from his Nessa-produced LP on the Flying Fish label. Poor guitarist - nobody cares for his playing.
2 - Okay...this is a Monk tune but I can't think of which one it is...gonna drive me crazy. This is a thoughtful and emotional reading of this tune...very well done.
Identified as Mary Lou Williams playing "Monk's Mood" and Herbie Nichols' "Bebop Waltz."
3 - I am far from an expert on this kind of music, but I do feel there's a certain excitement and newness here that not many people have captured in recent years. I really like this. Some great playing and interaction...these guys are really saying something.
Yeah, this is the real thing. Alex knew it was Johnny Dodds' "Perdido Street Blues" right away.
4 - That is one hot clarinet player. He is the highlight of this track for me...what a solo!
You got the message of this track, then - the unsung greatness of clarinetist Harry Shields. Identified, much to my surprise, as from an out-of-print, leaderless LP called The Right to Profit State and All That Jazz. More info in the reveal.
5 - I wish I could like this, I really do...but the klezmer thing is just not my bag. But I respect this more than I like it.
The lonely orphan of this BFT. I was hoping that even folks who aren't into klezmer would respond to the fire and excitement of this track, particularly the last half. Reactions have ranged from unenthusiastic respect to outright hostility.
6 - Nice! Some serious grooviness. Hmmm...the horns and the guitar actually aren't blowing me away--the organist is the whole show here. Holy crap...he really knows how to build a solo. And big props to the drums & percussion for keeping the groove and the energy up...this is seriously intense. Ah..."I Get A Kick Out of You"...interesting. To be honest, LOVE the organ solo, but everything on the front and back end I could do without. Really interested in finding out who the organ player is.
Identified as Charles Earland's "Key Club Cookout" by a bunch of folks.
7 - This is nice and pleasant but not something I would probably listen to more than once. But it's obviously done very well, just not really my thing.
Identified as Claude Thornhill playing a Gil Evans chart, c. 1947. I understand where you're coming from, but the level of imagination in the arrangement got to me right away.
8 - I like the feel on this a lot...and by that I mean both the rhythmic feel and the mood of the piece. I'm really enjoying the sax player...even more so when he/she returns for another go around at the end. Some really nice, energetic moments there. Everyone sounds great here...perfect solos from the piano and trumpet...and there is a real cohesiveness to the whole group. There's something about the whole performance and the piece that sounds Mal Waldron-esque to my ears, but I don't think the piano player is Waldron. Overall I am dying to know who this is...and then I'll slap my forehead as I'm sure these are folks I do or should know. Great stuff!
One of the few un-ID'ed tracks left, and ain't it a great one?. Waldron is not involved. More hints in a couple of days.
9 - "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"...this is beautiful, but it ultimately doesn't quite hit that 'sweet spot' for me. I hate to say anything bad about it because it's a flawless performance in many ways, but I am missing an emotional depth somehow. The playing is spot-on, it just doesn't move me like I want it to. I have no doubt I'll regret having said that once I find out who it is. :)
You probably don't have regrets - identified as the Bob Moses group from Love Animal, with Jim Pepper, Keith Jarrett, and... hey - nobody's mentioned the bassist!
10 - Okay...this has everything I was missing in the last one. Fantastic. I am really loving the alto player...such an expressive tone. And the guitarist is the perfect complement, really listening, responding, and supportive. Superb.
The Magnificent Goldberg figured this out, much to my surprise - Budd Johnson, from an unreissued 78. See his interesting detective work above..
11 - The Ornette influence is clear off the bat, but it quickly takes an interesting detour. Holy cow. This has got to be an ESP recording, no? Maybe the sound quality is throwing me off...I'm having a hard time telling whether this was recorded in the 60s or much more recently. Either way, I really dig it. The bass player certainly sounds like he could be Alan Silva. The rhythmic feel of this tune combined with the disjointed phrasing of the alto player is really compelling to me. And I'm a big fan of the bass playing too. Dying to know who this is!!
Also not ID'ed, except for drummer Han Bennink. Not ESP, but that's the right time period. I let it drop that the saxophonist is my homeboy, but nobody has picked up on that yet.
12 - This is just a barrel of fun with a killin groove underneath. Love it! This thing grooves so hard you could drive a truck through it. I have no idea what that means, but someone I know used to say that.
Read Sangrey's comments about the near-religious experience this Danny Barker track was for him above.
13 - Well, obviously it's Louis Armstrong..."Dream a Little Dream of Me." Not sure what can be said about Louis that hasn't already been said...this is perfect, classic.
Yep.
14 - Hoo boy. Wow... yeah, I cannot do this one, sorry! Wait a minute...this is a joke, right? Okay...haha. If it is, it's a good one. I have done some gigs like this and they were somewhere between funny and excruciating!
Welcome to the wonderful, horrible world of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. You should hear their version of "Stayin' Alive."
Thanks for listening, and for the great comments.

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There's not one selection here I failed to enjoy. Copied below my listening notes, very warty. I tried not to agonize too much over identifying musicians and to concentrate instead on my manners of habits of listening. Greatly looking forward to the reveal.

1 -- The conception feels familiar, but the trumpet player's voice does not.. the occasional rasp, the use of vibrato here and there as a filigree, almost Mogie-like (mid-60's Morgan, after he started relying more and more on tricky lipping and vocal effects, some of which I swear he adapted from Kenny Dorham)… there's a nice, dark center to this player's tone as well, one that almost makes me think this is a flugelhorn… the bass sound says 70s / early 80s… (Whoa, did not see that guitar coming!) This player does not want for technique. Really like the tumbling quality of some of the phrases in the fours with the drummer. Could very well be a player of an generation older than Morgan, or Hubbard, or Charles Sullivan. Could this be Idrees Sulieman or Howard McGhee? Maybe even Louis Smith? Has to be someone who could burn like Smith could.

2 -- Monk's Mood, but not Monk. Monk would never play the middle phrase of the melody quite like that… not that this pianist rushes it, but he or she definitely is moving to a different pulse. And the bridge feel "classed up" to me, that is, played with a kind of classical pianist's sense of organization and dynamics… I mean, the solo is kind of far out in that respect… Something in the articulation says Bud Powell to me, but I don't think so. And what is the second theme? Not a performance with which I'm familiar, but I'm certainly intrigued.

3 -- One thing I love about really good early jazz is how otherworldly it can feel. And when the clarinet player here solos… what an amazingly elastic, electric sound. Sound might even find it grotesque. With that in mind, is this Johnny Dodds? Love the way, too, ensembles emerge, break apart, and recombine in performances like this.

4 -- Feels like the trombonist's band, by virtue, perhaps, of the way in which the performances has been recorded. Even though the clarinet takes the first solo, which does stray into some Pee Wee Russell-esque territory there in the final bars. Would like to hear more from the pianist… the left hand more than than the right!

5 -- The guitarist's palette and and the Middle Eastern-isms of this intro make we wonder if we are not within John Zorn's orbit. And with the entry of the clarinet and rhythm, I feel we must be. But there's no kitsch leavening this intensity, at least not to my ears. I wonder now about the relationship between the 3 clarinets in tracks 3, 4 and 5. If 3 is Johnny Dodds, could 4 be Bob Wilber (or someone of his generation)? Whoever this clarinet player is, obviously, jazz provides only one frame of reference; I like his (or her) ears. My real interest, though, lies in whoever is playing accordion.

6 -- Not a groove that can be easily replicated, maybe because no one uses percussionists quite like this anymore. Tenor player has real "snap" to his notes / phrases, even when he runs off a Coltrane lick. Is he coming back? Trumpet solo seems a bit weak, not as in the pocket as it could be. I like the little organ interlude before the guitar solo… so this is a bandleader willing to vary the formula. With that in mind, I'm going to guess Charles Earland. Also, there's some Larry Young in his solo, so it almost certainly has to be Earland. Or Leon Spencer. But I don't know of any live Spencer recordings. Anyway, the rest of the band? (Tight, BTW.) Wait, this organ solo has entered some pretty strange territory. I like it: counter-intuitive, if what you want is a capital S Solo, but still funky. More about shapes than lines, if that makes any sense. And given the tools with which he or she is working, why not?

7 -- OK, I had to listen to that intro several times over… Monk-ish, right, or am I just kidding myself? Which makes the vocal that follows all the more, uh, surprising. Modern in its harmonies and outlook, intelligent, elegant yet oblique at times (the band's punctuation of the vocal melody), but not "modern jazz" in that its beholden to bebop. Is that Lee Konitz? Sounds a bit like Konitz on a cough syrup jag (not a bad thing at all)? Could be the Thornhill band, whose repertoire I don't know as well as I should. Bu the more I listen, the more I hear evidence of Gil Evans… those closing chords…

8 -- The alto player has me stumped, though I really like his / her tone, approach, the whole package. Both the pianist and trumpet player (gets a little fussy, though, yes?) are wise, I think, to let the alto be the dominate voice. The tune's structure almost couldn't be simpler, and yet the drummer especially finds all sorts of ways to generate material of new interest. As original as the alto player is -- I want to say Oliver Lake, but I know its not -- the drummer might be the MVP of this performance.

9 -- Under all the embellishment, a tune I feel like I should know. And the tenor reminds me why: "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." So there is a kind of Monk theme to this BFT. Let's hear that intro again… very nice, and reminds me of Don Friedman in his approach to standard material. Tenor sounds very, very, very indebted to Coltrane. Dave Liebman? Steve Grossman? More emotional heft, IMO, than either of those players. Wow, this pianist really sounds like Don Friedman, but I know its not. The lines aren't quite the same; this player does more to vary line lengths, and the long lines don;t have quite the same logic as Friedman's. I like this little disappearing act he or she tries to pull around the 5 minute mark… and now, all of a sudden, whoever it is sounds very much like Keith Jarrett. Hmmmm… As much as this is the pianist's performance, I bet he or she isn't the leader here. Ditto the tenor player.

10 -- Soprano sax, guitar and organ? This has to be Sidney Bechet, yes? Or a master of Bechet's caliber. My favorite vibrato, period. Lovely performance, oddly forlorn, or like an unused romantic interlude from a M. Hulot film (I'm erring now on the side of this being Bechet with a French group.) Beyond that, I know nothing.

11 -- The theme feels very Ornette, but the performance itself is something else. A real sour quality to the saxophonist's tone. My first thought was that this is Marion Brown. Tone (just that little bit of extra air), phrasing, conception all say Marion Brown to me. But the drummer is throwing me off. Said trappist is either a moonlighting Keith Moon or Han Bennink… or someone else equally interested in provocation. If this is Brown and Bennink, then I am guessing this is from PORTO NOVO, a record I have not listened to in a long, long time, in part because I found the recording quality too harsh and an impediment to my enjoyment. I may need to correct myself.

12 -- Rock and roll! I mean, the real stuff. Who's kicking all those marching saints in the ass with his (or her) baritone sax? For once in my life, I feel like I am, indeed, among the many embraced in the term "everybody."

13 -- Pops! (So, in think for connections back to the previous track… could that be Danny Barker on vocals? I only know his late 80's SAVE THE BONES, but I know he made tons of recordings over the years). Ah, but what era of Pops. And who is in the All-Stars at this time? Very nice… a little buttoned-down (so surely this is later Pops) but he still does some marvelous stuff in delivering this lyric… I like the hint of lasciviousness on the bridge… This tune ends up getting more than it deserves, right?

14 -- Jonathan and Darlene Edwards / Paul Weston and Jo Stafford. Genius. Its hard to appreciate at first, but it is extremely difficult to play this stuff so thoroughly wrong (quotation marks around wrong optional). I mean, if not for the instantly recognizable lyrics, couldn't this be a completely new composition.

And now I'm able to go back and finally read everyone else's observations and guesses.

Edited by Joe
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